Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1887-11-17


q defect OF musical execution, and, though
there were in one bar as many ofenses
against harmony as could crowd in between
the lower Of the bass and the higher g Of
the soprano, it would give them no discom-
fort, whils on the forenead OF the educated
artist beads Of pcrspiration would stand Out
Is q result Of the narrowing dissouanca
While an amateur was performing on q
piano and had Just struck the wrong chord,
John Sebastian Bach. the immortal COM
poser, entered the room, and the amateur
rose in embarrassment. and Bach rushed past
the host, who stepped forward to greet him,
and before the keyboard had stopped vibrat-
ing, put his adroft hand upon the keys and
changed the painful inharmony into glorious
cadence. Then Bach turned and gave salu-
tation to the host who had invited him
But ths worst Of all discords is moral dis
cord II society and the world are painfully
discordant to imperfect man, what must they
be to perfect Godi People try to define
what sin is It seems to me that sin is get
ting out OF harmony with God, disagree
ment with His holiness, with His purity, with
His love, with His commands; our will clash
ing with His will, the finite dashing against
the infinite, the efrail against the puissant, the
created against the Creator. II q thousand
musicians, with flute, and cornet a-piston,
and trumpet, and yioloncello, and hautboys,
and trombone, and all the wind and stringed
instruments that ever gathered in q Dussel-
dorf jubilee, should resolve that they would
play out Of tune and put concord to the rack,
and make the place wild with shrieking, and
grating, and rasping sounds, they could not
make such a pandemonium as that which
RACES in sinful soul when God listens to the
play of its thoughts, passions and emotions
discord, lifelong discord, maddening discord.
The world pays more for discord than it
does for consonance. High prices have been
paid for music. One man gave $225 to hear
the Swedish songstress in New York, and an
other $625 to hear her in Boston, and another
$3.50 to hear her in Providence Fabulous
prices have been paid for sweet sounds, but
far more has been paid for discord. The
Crimean war cost 81, 200, ,000. 900, and our
American cival war, over 9,500, ,000, 900, and
the war debts of professed Christian nations
are about SIS, 900, 100000, The world pays
for this red ticket, which admits it to the
saturnalia Of broken bones, and death ago
mics, and destroyed cities, and plowed graves,
and crushed hearts, any amount of moneu
Satan asks. Discord! Discordl
But have to tell you that the song
that the morning stars sang together
at the laying of the worlds corner
stone is to be resumed again Mozart's
greatest overture was composed one night
when he was several times overpowered with
sleep, and artists say they can tell the places
in the music where be was falling asleep and
the places where he awakened. So the over
ture of the morning stars spoken Of in my
text has been asleep, but it viii awaken and
be more grandly rendered by the evening
stars of the worlds existence than by the
morning stars, and the vespers will be
sweeter than the mathis. The work of all
good men and women and of all good
churches and all reform associations IS to
bring the race back to tie original harmony.
The rebellious heart to be attuned, social life
to be attuned, commercial ethics to be at
tuned, Internationally to be attuned, hemis-
pheres to be attuned-but by what force
and in what way?
In olden time the choristers had tuning
fork with two prongs, and they would strike
It on the back OF pew or music rack and put
it to the ear and then start the tune, and all
the other voices would join. In modern or
chestra the leader has complete instrument,
rightly attuned, and he sounds that, and all
the other performers turn the keys of their
instruments to make them correspond, and
sound the bow over the string, and listen,
and sound out over again, until all the keys
are screwed to concert pitch, and the dis
cords melt into one great symphony, and the
curtain hoists, and the baton taps. and audi
ences are raptured with Schumann's "Para-
disc and the Peri' or Rossini's 'Stabat Mater''
or Bach's "Magnifcatn in D, or Gounod's
Redemption
Now, our world can never be attuned by
an imperfect instrument. Even a Cremona
would not do. Heaven has ordained the only
instrument, and it is made out of the wood Of
the cross, and the voices that accompany it
are imported voices, cantatrices Of the first
Christmas night, when heaven serenaded the
earth with GLORY to God in the highest and
on earth peace, good will to men" Lest we
start too far off and get lost in generalities,
we had better begin with ourselves. get our
own hearts and life in harmony with the
eternal Christ. Oh, for His almighty spirit
to attune u.s. to chord our viii with his will,
to modulate our life with his life, and bring
us into unison with all that is pure and self
sacrificing and heavenly. The strings of our
nature are all broken and twisted, and the
bow is so slack it cannot evoke anything mel
li6uoua The instrument made for heaven to
play on has been roughly twanged and struck
by influences worldly and demoniac O,
master hand of Christ, restore this split and
fractured and despoiled and unstrung nature
until it shall wall out for this sin, and then
thrill with divine pardon.
The whole world must also be attuned by
the same power. A few days ago was in
the Fairbanks weighing scale mandatory
of Vermont Six hundred hands, and they
have never had a strike. Complete harmony
between labor and capital, the operatives of
y
by the mansions of the manufacturers, whose
invention and Christian behavior made the
great enterprise. So all the world over labor
and capital will be Brought into euphony.
You may have heard what is called the ssAn-
vii Chorus" composed by Verdi, a tune
played by hammers, great and small, now
with mighty stroke, and now with heavy
stroke, beating great iron anvil That is
what the world has got to come to-anvil
ohN td cfia oh chr, Ia obN
trowel chorus, crowbar chorus, pickax
chorus, gold mine chorus, rail track chorus,
locomotive chorus. 1t can be done, and it
will be done. So all social life will be at
tuned by the Gospel harp. There will
be as many classes in society as
now, but the classes will not be regu-
lated by birth, or wealth, or accident,
but by the scale of virtue and benevolence,
and people will be assigned to their places
as good, or very good, or most ex-
cellent. So also, commercial life will be
attuned, and there will be twelve in every
dozen and sixteen ounces in every pound,
and apples at the bottom Of the barrel win be
as sound AZ those on top and silk goods will
not be cotton, and sellers win not have to
charge honest people more than the right
price because others will not pay, and goods
will come to you corresponding with the
sample by which you purchased them, and
coffee will not be chickoried and sugar will
not be sanded, and milk will not be chalked
and adulteration of food will be a States
prison offense. Aye, all things shall be at
tuned, Elections in England and the United
States will no more be grand carnival of
defamation and scurrility, but the elevation
of righteous men in righteous way.
In the Sixteenth century the singers, called
the di~cAer brothers, reached the lowest bass
eyc- .corded, and the highest note ever
thrilled was by La Bastardella, and Catalinis